Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, all right, well as most of our matters for this reconvened conference are, in fact, matters of discussion and we have a couple of people who've been dialed out too who are traveling and need a call back in a couple of moments. I think if we begin and note that we won't be covering of anything of a vote nature until such times as everyone is here as quorum. I'd like to thank everyone for rejoining us at our reconvened meeting.
And inform you that we are starting our agenda from the item that was listed on the 27 April agenda as the item for this decision ALS Survey. Whilst with still one short of quorum, I'm concerned that we will be making a decision without quorum during this meeting because, in fact, we have all agreed previously that this survey is a useful tool and we will be going out.
And it will be going out post haste after this call once translations are completed. But we have had the Wiki page open and we have had an excellent number of comments and contributions into this. Now I was about to ask staff whether or not they wanted to bring this survey Wiki page up into the Connect meeting room or whether they just wished to speak to the additional regional questions and any - and we’ll open the floor then for any additional questions that ALAC members wish to put in to the survey.
Heidi are you 01 going to be speaking to this?
Heidi Ullrich: I'm happy to do that but Matthias, since he's been working with you as well as regions…
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes so we might do a tag team exercise that way. Excellent okay, Matthias has popped the linker in the Adobe Chat and it should be noted, I think, before Heidi begins that the plan is to, by using the Big Polls tool, treat this in a manner very similar to anyone in the ALAC who has a voting credential sent to them when we have a number of statements to vote on or a number of ALSs to vote on.
You get your voting credentials with the preamble and you get, once you follow the link to Big Polls, you get segregated sections. So you would have one hyperlink to one statement, one to another, and one to a third. The plan is for this survey to use similar setup so that when the voter goes into the Big Polls, or the respondent goes into the Big Polls tool they will have the ALS Global Outreach link to those questions.
They will have the link to the questions put together by Ron and Rudy. And then they will have the link to the geographic studies on review of the geographic regions for ICANN link. This allows the respondent to manage those parts of the survey jointly or severally as their time permits. We certainly don’t want respondent fatigue coming in. So with that preamble, and if you’ve all got that in your minds, please go ahead Heidi.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, I wanted to again, Cheryl I think you said a lot already. On the - and there's going to be three parts to this, the first part will be the at-large ALS survey. That has 12 questions. We have incorporated, I believe, most of the comments that have been added to the Wiki page, including for example, the languages that the ALS is comfortable in working with.
We’ve also added, today, a question related to the at-large improvements, which is actually a two-part question on the issue of participation. Which is, that’s an open question as well as whether the ALS right to help in the implementation of the at-large improvement.
The second part of the survey, as Cheryl mentioned, is the ALS CCTLD survey that has been prepared by Ron. And that has 13 questions. I see that Question 10 is doubled currently. We’ll fix that. And then the third part is a link to the geographic regions. We’re going to, once this text - once all of the questions are approved by you, we will go ahead and translate the survey into French and Spanish as well. And it Matthias, I'll hand over to you.
Matthias Langenegger: Thanks Heidi. I think we covered most topics on the survey. It was also on the regional agendas in the last couple of weeks and we received some suggestions from the LACRALO, the EURALO and the APRALO secretariat and all of those questions have been incorporated in the current version of the survey.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you Matthias. I'll open the floor for any comments or discussions from the ALAC and indeed from our observers and our liaisons present on the call. But I would just point out one oversight and that is I very specifically wanted to ensure that we named the preparers of the ALS CCTLD survey properly.
I notice as properly and fully I know that is done in the preamble. It has not been picked up the heading section on the Wiki page. And it certainly needs to be both changed on the Wiki page and obviously, made sure that it happens in the Big Polls tool text. I get a little bit toey about copywrite and accreditation. And I think whilst Rudy did a lot of the heavy lifting, we should recognize Ron in his role in the preparation of that survey. Rudy I know you're moving between locations at the moment or was that at the last meeting? Are you there?
Rudy: Yes Cheryl, no problem. Yes I'm traveling between two locations at this moment. So I will stay on the line for, I think, another 10 minutes.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, do you want to say anything in particular? You're satisfied with the way we’re putting it out in the three equal bites? Well they're hardly equal, but in the three partitioned bites? I certainly was fearful that I didn’t want people to think “Oh dear, this is taking me too long and it's doing too much.”
Rudy: No, I'm really pleased with the setup. It's really good. We will have a lot of information coming back which certainly goes out, I'm sure it will help us.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Oh, it's going to be extremely useful. Now that does bring us to a piece of administration issues and that is, of course, yes there is going to be a huge amount of information coming back. And whilst the information doesn’t need to be analyzed and reported on in the terms of the Geographic Regions Review survey by anyone other than the staff responsible for that workgroup. We do have the responsibility for the ALS and the CCTLD survey and that one needs to be done. So I'm assuming, Rudy that those - you and Ron will be convening as a bit of a work team to have input and assist in that review role?
Rudy: Certainly, we will try to go through all the details you are getting. And we will try to match them as far as we can with information we have from the CCTLDs.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, to that end then, can I ask Matthias, is it you that’s going to be the interface on that - with staff in terms of the metrics and the analysis then?
Matthias Langenegger: Yes Cheryl, this is going to be me and we plan to end the survey on May 17. And we’ll then hopefully be able to present the results within two or three days I'd say.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Excellent, okay. Who is going to work in the review…?
((Crosstalk))
Diana Munoz: Excuse, me
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: …yes go ahead please.
Diana Munoz: This is Diana Munoz; Sylvia has joined on the Spanish channel.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Excellent, thank you very much Diana. And that means we’re now quorate so we can start to make a decision with almost perfect and uncanny timing. With the survey, I would like to know do you want to have any particular part of the At-large Advisory Committee responsible for working with staff on the analysis and review of the information.
Heidi Ullrich: This is Heidi. I think that would be extremely useful.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I think it's probably essential. Obviously it'll be going out to all of the - sent indeed to all the regional leads as soon as possible. But I think we do need a small group to own the information analysis, at least at the beginning of the drafting, particularly I'm looking forward to a fairly large amount of work coming back in.
Can I ask perhaps that we have a couple of volunteers come forward and Matthias if you can interact directly with people who've been most willing to put forward comment and to discuss the benefits of the survey. And we’ll see if we can make sure we've got a team of at least three or so people to assist in that particular task.
And Rudy if you and Ron want an additional person to assist with you, just let us know and we’ll make sure we've got another person in that group. All right as we’re quorate, I would now like to put to the At-large Advisory Committee, unless anyone else has any comments. I don’t see anyone waving at me in the Connect room.
Is there anyone on either of the language channels who wishes to speak to the survey? It appears not. In which case, I would now like to have the formal endorsement of the At-large Advisory Committee to have, with the minor edits as mentioned in today’s call, -
Diana Munoz: Excuse me, this is Diana Munoz, the interpreter, Sylvia’s saying that if you are speaking about the survey, she would like to become a participant and help in anything that she is able to.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Well you tell Sylvia that her name has been taken down and she is going to be very welcome to work in the analysis section for the at-large outreach and indeed Ron and Rudy may also prevail upon her for assistance. So thank her very much for that. Sebastian, go ahead please.
Sebastian Bachollet: Yes, sorry I know didn’t 27 some 25 - 00.12.33.
Woman: I'm sorry this is -
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes, so I'll - Sebastian?
Sebastian Bachollet: Yes?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I'm assuming you're using an IP connect system. We’re losing an awful lot of packets. It's very, very difficult to hear what you're saying. Can we try again?
((Crosstalk))
Sebastian Bachollet: Okay let me call back...
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, thank you.
Sebastian Bachollet: … with a landline.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: All right, we’ll hold for just one moment. Then Sebastian will still have the microphone. Is there anyone else wishing to comment while Sebastian dials back in through other technology? Tijani as some of these questions will go, I think very much, to the type of intention that the F Regional Capacity Building Project wanted to look at.
I would like to think that AFRALO and certainly APRALO are going to be a couple of the regions that make particularly good use of the results of this survey. So as I will be encouraging to have someone probably Pavan or Charles put themselves forward to assist on the analysis work from APRALO, I would like to ask you to do the same at the next AFRALO meeting or online. So if we can get you to provide a volunteer to Matthias between now and when the closing, 17 May, befor the survey happens that would be greatly appreciated. Sebastian are you dialed back in yet?
Interpreter for Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, Tijani, excuse me Tijani is speaking.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Go ahead then, thank you Tijani.
Interpreter for Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes I would be happy to do that, says Tijani. Unfortunately I'm too busy but I'm going to try to find somebody to volunteer their time and I'll look for somebody who would be happy to volunteer and work on this particular matter.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you Tijani. And of course, a last component of good leadership is delegation. So I'm pleased to hear of this 59 fit you have. Sebastian, yes go ahead?
Sebastian Bachollet: Yes but I didn’t change technology.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Oh, well we’ll see how we are.
Sebastian Bachollet: I am trying 12 - 00.15.18. I wanted 19 to make some 26.
Woman: We are not understanding Sebastian.
Sebastian Bachollet: Sorry?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Can we dial out to you Sebastian? Is there a line we can dial out to you?
Sebastian Bachollet: 40, wait a second.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I couldn’t even hear the response to that question.
Heidi Ullrich: He said he would put the number to be dialed out -
((Crosstalk))
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Ah, okay, good, thank you. Yeah, perhaps not all of us are as badly affected by the delay that it was - okay have we got Sebastian back now?
Heidi Ullrich: We’re still waiting for him to place the number.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay.
Sebastian Bachollet: Cheryl this is 25 doesn’t matter because it's 27, go ahead.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, but Sebastian I'm assuming you probably want to contribute later to other parts of the discussion. So if you just Skype to Heidi, we’ll get a dial-out to you because it is unfortunately very difficult to understand with the delay and the packet drop. Well thank you very much for that discussion.
Can I ask now for anyone who wishes to speak against the survey being translated and going out post haste? I very much doubt that I will see hands in the room. Is there anyone who wishes to have their name either voted against this survey or as a abstention? I hope Sebastian isn’t typing that he wants to be in either or those. We’ll wait to see what he says.
Sylvia Leite: This is Sylvia speaking and I completely agree on the survey.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you Sylvia. And phew, Sebastian has come in on the yes vote. So at that stage I would like to have the record show that the At-large Advisory Committee has approved the survey. I think this is a landmark moment because whilst we have done surveys before, this is possibly one of the most pivotal for our in-reach, which we were discussing as very needful in Nairobi, and which is a very important part of where we move in our at-large improvement implementation, and in the resuscitation and refurbishment and revitalization of work groups, and the policy development input.
Sylvia Leite: This is Sylvia speaking and I would like to ask a question.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes, go ahead, Sylvia, thank you.
Sylvia Leite: I’m not in front of the computer so I cannot see the Wiki, but the other day I saw that there were some comments of other people and I wanted to ask to see if they had been taken into account about the – if these have been taken into account and if they have been incorporated.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes, Sylvia, having popped just a tiny bit after we started, Mr. Diaz did speak to that matter, as did Heidi, and yes, I believe, I’m very confident, that all of the comments have been incorporated in some form or other. But yes, they’ve all been dealt with. Alan, go ahead, please.
Alan Greenburg: Yeah, now that this is approved, I guess I would like to see a, not a plan but some structure put in place so that we can track participation from the ALSs
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Sure.
Alan Greenburg: And have either the chair or the ALAC representatives from each region-
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Participate.
Alan Greenburg: -report, well poke in on it, and report on a regular basis back to the ALAC, how well this is going, because the credibility of the responses and, incidentally, of the at-large director process is gonna be based on the fact that these ALSs are alive. And when you poke at them, they say something.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yep, that’s an excellent proposal, Alan; certainly has my support. Rudy, your microphone’s turned into a tick, is that what you wanted to say? I believe.
Rudy: Yes, indeed.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, thank you.
Sylvia Leite: This is Sylvia, and I completely agree with Alan, too.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yep. Matthias, that to me, seems like a very simple process but reassure us all that that’s going to be part of what we’re doing.
Matthias Langenegger: Indeed. It will be possible to track the voters and-
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Participants.
Matthias Langenegger: To see who’s voting in the survey and-
((Crosstalk))
Alan Greenburg: Participants, not.
Matthias Langenegger: I would suggest, I would hope that we – sorry?
Alan Greenburg: Participants, not voters.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: The action item will reflect that.
Alan Greenburg: Just as a follow-up, what I specifically don’t want is to find out after it’s finished that we had a problem.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes, it’s the encouragement during the process that we’re particularly keen to track and follow them to. Good, excellent. And I think with the exception of APRALO, every region or meeting will be held during the time that the ALSs survey is open. So APRALO will just have to make sure it reminds its ALS respondents, without reminding itself, in formal meeting.
Well thank you, very much, for all of that. Moving on to the next and extremely important issue; planning for the Brussels meeting. If you’d like to open the Brussels meeting page for our at-large meeting schedule, you will see that we have a number of things starting to be populated there. Heidi, would you like to speak to this please?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. This schedule has been just at the level of the executive committee. Matthias, could you please, if you have not already, put the link into the Adobe Connect?
Matthias Langenegger: Uhmm.
Heidi Ullrich: This Wiki contains the current meetings that are being planned for Brussels. Cheryl, should I go through them?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Very briefly, yes, because I think it helps, particularly those of us who aren’t – as Sylvia isn’t and Rudy isn’t – in front of the screen. It just helps us get our mental image of what we’re doing.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. So I’m going to discuss the current schedule. I’m not going to discuss the agendas yet, as those have not been fully developed yet. So to begin with, on Sunday we have the traditional ALAC and Regional Leadership working session. That will be all day, as normal.
On Monday we have, I believe in the afternoon but that’s going to be confirmed, an RAA forum. That is going to be discussing the RAA amendments; that’s going to be a cross-constituency-wide meeting.
Tentatively – this is not reflected in the current Wiki yet – but tentatively there will also be a consumer outreach meeting on Monday, later afternoon. On Tuesday, we currently have an APRALO meeting scheduled for the morning. We have the, again, traditional ALAC policy discussions, part one and part two, in the morning as well, going into early afternoon.
On Tuesday again, currently scheduled for lunch is the EURALO showcase event. I also spoke with Donna Austin who is Rod Beckstream’s Chief of Staff; she has been informed that EURALO would like Rod to say the opening comments for that event.
On Tuesday in the afternoon we have an ALAC improvement, again tentatively scheduled with the members of SIC and the BGC. And also, currently tentatively scheduled in the evening the EURALO monthly meeting. Moving to Wednesday, we have again tentatively scheduled, the lunch with the board; working lunch.
On Thursday, after the public forum, we have the at-large regional secretariat currently scheduled for a working lunch. On the Wiki there’s a LACRALO meeting currently there, but that will be taking place actually prior to the Brussels meeting.
Going to Thursday, there will be, in the early afternoon, an at-large registrar’s meeting. We will be talking with the appropriate members of staff to address the agenda for that one.
And also on late Thursday afternoon we have the tradition ALAC and Regional Leadership wrap-up session for 90 minutes, with the final meeting on Friday being the ALAC Executive Committee Meeting.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Which we should note is - sorry. Which we should note is, I as is our habit at these face-to-face opportunities, an open meeting for any observers, regional people, or simply passer-bys to come in and interact with.
Heidi Ullrich: Which, actually yes - Cheryl, thank you for that – and particularly there seems to be a growing tradition of all members who are still there on Friday, that they do come to that session.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: A tradition that I’m more than happy to encourage.
Heidi Ullrich: And also one final meeting that still needs to be confirmed, the date and the time, is the AFRALO joint meeting with other African constituencies on the single issue of the support for new GTLD applicant. There is some question now whether that meeting will be actually in the form of the traditional Afri-ICANN meeting, so perhaps Tijani would speak to that.
Interpreter for Tijani Ben Jemaa: Kesha could you repeat the last bit of that in the form of, what kind of meeting?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, it’s the Afri-ICANN. So it’s Afri-ICANN.
Interpreter: Okay, Tijani is here.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay, go ahead, Tijani.
Interpreter for Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes, normally, says Tijani, we had not thought to do that with the Afri-ICANN. (Speaking French). There is some static on the English line; is somebody not muted, perhaps? That would help, thank you. Okay, Tijani speaking. The purpose of this meeting, if you want to do a round-table with AFRALO who heads this and the other - anybody else who will participate at the ICANN in Brussels, we could do that.
Now, you know there’s a working group that is involved in trying to assist the GTLDs who need help. I think that the Africans would like to be involved and when the working group has finished its work, we can present this in Brussels and we could have a kind of basic report.
But what I would like to do is that the African’s President in Brussels give their feedback and also state what they need and what kind of assistance they need. And not the Africans who are in the working group, but they can transmit the Africans’ point of view in the final report; the point of view of the Africans and of the GTLDs who might need assistance, so that that we have some feedback. Okay.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, Tijani. Yes, it is a golden opportunity to get some of that outreach and community input into the – I think, a very good point in time of the work that the newly convened work group, which only met in the last 12 hours, is going to be doing. Thank you. I have a speaking order now of Rudy followed by Alan and to then Sebastian. Go ahead, Rudy.
Rudy: Thank you, Cheryl. Just two informations I want to add. First of all, as you probably know, we have our national government that collapsed end of the past week. And this result’s impacting a lot of work which was not scheduled on my agenda.
((Crosstalk))
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I can imagine!
Rudy: And the point is that as it stands today, the elections are scheduled for the 20 of June and that’s ridiculous because then I would have to do two or three travels in the morning sessions for doing what I have to do.
Secondly, this has a reflection also on the EURALO Outreach Program, as I had scheduled the Minister of Telecom and at the moment though I’m afraid it has to be one of the speakers. I have to change now and as we don’t have a Minister at the moment we will have the ICANN meeting, I’m looking to-
((Crosstalk))
Sylvia Leite: I’m sorry; could you please repeat who you have the meeting with? This is Sylvia.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Minister for Communications.
Sylvia Leite: Minist Communications?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Correct. The Minister for Communications will be involved in election matters, government election matters, and has now had to withdraw as a speaker for the EURALO showcase.
Rudy: Correct.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Okay. Go back to you.
((Crosstalk))
Rudy: And I’m looking forward now to find someone else to replace him, which will probably be someone from the Belgian, European parliamenters, in order to have a qualified person speaking at the outreach.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, Rudy.
((Crosstalk))
RudyL That were the two comments.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: And if you want us in any way to assist with any form of ICANN support or facilitation, let us know and we’ll do everything we can to assist what is a few extra issues you really didn’t need to have to deal with on this.
I know Sebastian understands how hard it is to put these things together and to have elections thrown into the mix right in the middle is, not quite nightmarish, but not far from it. Thanks, very much, Rudy. Do keep us posted; if you need any assistance, let us know. Alan, go ahead, please.
Alan Greenburg: No, I’ll pass – the time has passed for my comment.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you. Sebastian, go ahead, please. You might be muted, Sebastian.
Sebastian Bachollet: Yeah, yeah, I just unmute and thank you anyway. Sorry for that. Yeah, it’s always difficult to have election. It seems to be that there are more and more election in some other countries in those days and we have a lot of people involved in that and that’s not easy.
But I was just – I am not participating at all in the discussion about the showcase. But I was a little bit intrigued by the request to have the CEO talking to the showcase. I would like to express my personal, and really just personal, point of view.
If I have to choose someone I will have asked the Vice Chair of the Board to speak to our event because, first of all, he’s an elected member of the Board, and secondly he’s from Europe. And I would have think that it could be better. But once again, I am not participating to the discussion at the European level on that and if they decide to ask Rod to be with us it’s okay with me.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, Sebastian, I’m sure Rudy and his - and the team that are putting together the showcase will have noted that. I also doubt that it will be limiting senior either Board or ICANN representatives to ‘merely’ the CEO, but Rod’s role in the AFRALO showcase, I think, was pivotal and important and it certainly encouraged a great deal many more Board members and senior ICANN staff to attend the event than would have under normal circumstances.
And it’s perhaps based on that experience that they’re doing their planning, but I’m sure that’s been noted, and thank you very much for the comments. Just one thing, obviously it’s very important, as this skeleton is now fleshed out for the Brussels agendas getting put into our schedule that each of you – and not just the ALAC members, but the regional leaders, liaisons and everyone else involved in the Brussels meeting start now going to that Wiki page and making comments and suggestions.
It’s there. We’ll accept it in any language. I suspect even if it wasn’t a UN language, we would accept your comments. But let’s now get as much of this put to bed as early as possible because there are timetable deadlines that Heidi has to meet.
One thing I will draw your attention to, which I think you’ll all be rather excited about, and that is on the Sunday we will be having – and I want to make sure we have sufficient time for it to be a very interactive and hopefully hands-on experience, introduction and some initial training on a new collaboration tool called the Confluence Wiki.
I know I’m looking forward to that and I think it fits with our recommendation for at-large improvements where we need to choose most appropriate tools. This is a tool that ICANN is looking at as a useful adjunct to its toolkit for community use, and if the at-large advisory committee, the regions and any of our work groups find it of particular use, I think we could be doing the Beta testing on it.
So I’m very excited about that and look forward to getting other people’s feedback. Okay, moving on then to our next agenda item, we have the at-large improvements on the schedule. And Seth has offered his apologies; he’s literally in the air right now, so I believe this goes to Heidi.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, so just, Matthias, if you can take notes while I’m discussing this. Again, there are three sections to this. The first is that the proposed at-large implementation project plan, which is on the agenda page, has been completed and we would like to have feedback from you on that, on the content.
It includes material about what the next steps in the at-large implementation plan is, particularly the allocation of who will be implementing each of those. It includes information on the new status log that is being developed. It includes information on the schedule that is hoped for it to be followed for the implementation, and some budget issues on that as well.
Seth did send that to all ALAC members a few days ago, so if you could provide feedback either today or in written form, in response to his message, that would be appreciated. Once this is approved, this document will be sent to the members of the SIC for their meeting on the 20 of May.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, very much, Heidi. And one thing I think that’s very important to note in this is the – you just sort of passed over fairly quickly – the tracking tool. If you could just give us a little bit of a verbal of what we should expect from that; that it’s not just a reporting mechanism, it’s a ongoing…
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, yes, thank you, for that, Cheryl. That’s actually another item in this section. I’ll go ahead and put the link to this status log in the Adobe Connect, so you can take a look at that. And again, this is going to be kept up to date on a regular basis.
This will include all of the details on what each of the tasks that are involved in the 13 recommendations, how they are being completed, what some of the key evidence, some of the key deliverables on each of these tasks are. It will include, also, links to, as appropriate, to reports, to evidence of some of these deliverables.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thanks, Heidi, and I think the only other matter to draw the attention of the At-large Advisory Committee and the regional leaders on this call, is that, of course, Seth is willing and able and available to be a presenter or join you to discuss with your ALS members, either in a single-purpose call if that’s your desire, or as part of the regional meeting cycles from now on. He’s at your beck and call.
I would like to encourage the representatives from each of the regions to raise that as a possibility with their regional leadership and also ask Matthias to track that and strongly encourage the regions to take advantage of now being able to discuss this at the more granular level with the regional meetings or, as I say, for a single-purpose call. Are there any discussion questions or matters that anybody wishes to raise on this topic?
Woman: Nope.
Sylvia Leite: Sylvia, no.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: No? Okay, thank you, thank you, Sylvia. Alright then, moving then to upcoming at-large Webinars. We have a space and place and it’s as a result of our identified need and the recognition of ICANN that we are an ideal candidate for part production/topic makers for one of the Webinar series.
And Heidi, I think this again goes to you. You’ve been working with Scott looking at the timing of the Webinars and the schedule, and indeed looking at some of the content. So if you’d like to lead into that discussion that would be great.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, again, I’ve just put the link into the Adobe Connect. This is a two-part Wiki page. One includes the content for this section of the Webinar, and the second one includes how we’re gonna actually communicate that, so the publicity for this Webinar.
So if we read through it, you can see that there actually is a very tight time schedule, and on the first part would be the agreement on what actually is the purpose and the communication goal, and I believe, Cheryl correct me if I’m wrong, but the Executive Committee has already had a discussion on that.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: You’re wrong.
Heidi Ullrich: I’m wrong! Okay, so this is going to be discussed then, today?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. So the first question then is what the ALAC would like – what do you want the audience to do because of the Webinar? What is the result of this Webinar to be? The second question is what is the call to action? Is it more for outreach?
Is it more for engagement of current at-large structures? Is it more for getting new at-large structures to join? And also, another question is how the success of this Webinar will be determined. What kind of metrics will be used for that? So Cheryl, would you like to have that discussed now?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I think if we open for any input and discussion now – I must say, I’m rather comfortable with some of the examples that are there. Just particularly for those who aren’t in front of computers while they’re on this call, I think the matter of, ‘What do you want the audience to do because they heard this?’ is something that most of us would probably agree on.
But the specific language might need to be tweaked, and I’d like to think that if people would like to comment on that now, we could probably jot down a few notes and words with particular response to that question. The call to action question is an interesting one. The examples that are listed for us to think about are, for example, do we want the person listening to this Webinar, who is a newcomer, to contact a local ALS or to explore whether there is an ALS in their local region?
I think the answer to that is probably, yes. Do we want them, if there isn’t an ALS in the region, or if they feel the ALS that is in their local area or region is not a perfect match for their community of interest’s needs, do we want them to consider forming an ALS?
Again, I don’t think there’s a big question on that. It’s regional intentions, I think, universally across all of our regions to grow their ALSs with a minimal aim of at least one per country. So I think that’s probably a given outcome. And of course the other matter is here in the Wiki it says “Come to Brussels.”
Well, I think it’s probably not so specific as “Come to Brussels” but to consider, as a result of engaging in the Webinar, engaging in other ICANN local and regional meetings and activities. And probably we need to say not even just ICANN, but ICANN and at-large regional meetings and activities.
So with that on the table, does anyone want to bring any other concepts forward now for us to seep back into this process? Or do you want to do that onto the Wiki page, which of course is open for comments? Tijani, I would expect this is going to be a - the result of this, the Webinar, it’s Webinar themselves, and that fact that they will be archived and on-demand once they’re completed is going to be a useful tool for the African capacity-building, as well.
I would say the same to the Asia-Pacific outreach, as well as in-reach projects that are going on. So we would probably like Heidi to, not hold up the schedule, but to ensure that the regional secretariats are all specifically asked to have input at their earliest convenience. Tijani, go ahead.
Interpreter for Tijani Ben Jemaa: Tijani is speaking. I think - too fast, Tijani - it’s a means of outreach and in-reach, both at the same time, and I believe that that will help us a great deal to set up our program for greater understanding and capacity-building for our ALSs and also for the whole community.
I believe this is valid for the whole at-large community, so therefore I can only speak positively. I think this is a very good thing, and I think it would be great if it would start and we could participate in the Webinar, the leaders, too. And I believe we need to do this and keep multiplying it on various levels and for the at-large, so I think it can be extremely useful for us all.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, Tijani. And I’m sure most of us, if not all of us on this call, will be echoing those thoughts. It’s an opportunity to begin doing things that so nay people have been asking for since even the last iteration of what is ALAC and at-large, and that is to develop purpose-built resources that are going to meet the needs of our community.
And of course, I would like to think that this is the first of many such resources that will be developed, not just in the Webinar series but, as we know, we’ve already got some of the audio and podcasts with our influence. And in the not-too-distant future I would like to think that the regional leaders and the at-large structures will be using the vote tool to encourage particular topics, to get to the top of the priorities for what matters are dealt with next.
One thing we will need the direct input from you all on, and again, please put this into the comments on the Wiki, as our time is growing short, not that we have much left to do on our agenda, but it is going towards the top of the hour. We would like to be able to have victories, for want of a better word, showcase or meritous moments to report in the Webinar, and I think it’s incumbent on us all to think about what particular things we’d like to let the rest of the world know we’ve achieved and that we’re proud of.
So, if that can come into comments or of course by use of the working email lists, as soon as possible, that would be appreciated. And the work team for Webinar, I would like to think that we can put that together with the input of, particularly, the regional secretariats because this goes to the in-reach and outreach at the local regions, so perhaps if that can go on the agenda for the secretariats’ discussion. ALAC will obviously have people on that work team, but I’d really like the heavy lifting to be done by representatives of each of the regions.
If there’s no other discussion on this matter, let’s move now to a very quick update on the affirmation of commitment review teams, and the current review team running is the Accountability and Transparency Review Team. The link to the at-large workspace on accountability and transparency is on the agenda.
I ask you all to particularly take some time and pass that link on to others, including the rank and file members of your ALSs. There is a suggestions box. There is an opportunity for each and every one of us to have our say, from an at-large or personal point of view, on what we think about accountability and transparency, past, present and future.
And that is one of the resources - that page is one of the resources the team will be using. It also holds the links to the official Wiki pages and Web pages for the review team; that major Accountability and Transparency Review Team page is being updated, if not as we speak, in the next couple of hours.
And it will, because of the recent deliberations of the review team, now hold all of our minutes, all of our recordings, all of our agendas, and all of our planned scheduling. So the Accountability and Transparency Review Team is becoming accountable and transparent – a victory for us all.
And most importantly, to let your members of ALSs and of course regional leadership and the ALAC know – and we will be putting the link out on Announce, as soon as it’s available, but it is short notice so we need to note today – that the first face-to-face meeting of the AT Review Team will be held in Marina del Rey next week on the Wednesday and Thursday, and that we will be having the majority of those sessions, as will be listed in our published agenda shortly, will be open and audio cast.
We will not be video casting, but we will have audio streaming. We will be using the Adobe Connect Room system for the audio screening and archiving of all of the discussions and deliberations over those two days. And that each of us, myself included, are going to have our other communication channels open.
In other words, we will be Twittering, we will be Skyping, and I certainly will be happy to bring comments, where appropriate, from the at-large community, into the room. So we will possibly ask that we set up a Skype feed in, so that I can access that. And obviously I’ll be looking at that more easily that I will emails during that meeting. So, welcome one and all, and pass the word around. Any questions on that matter, before we move to the second part of this item?
If not, then that’s what’s happening with the current Accountability and Transparency Review Team. We should also note however, that we are now about to have calls for applications for representatives for all of the relevant ACs and SOs. And we are a relevant advisory committee for the two additional review teams.
So the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS Review Team, and the Who is Policy Review Team are about to be opened, and we need to proactively put into place mechanisms whereby we will be endorsing and reaching out for suitable and appropriate – particularly in the case of security, stability and resilience review – people to put forward for the selectors to consider.
This is something we will have to start our work on very shortly. But if we draw your attention to the proposed text for the applications, you will note that there have been considerable lessons learned from our experience on putting together the slate of endorsed candidates for consideration, as a result of what can only be described as a debacle with the current Affirmation of Commitments Review Team for Accountability and Transparency.
So if you can all look over that proposed text and get back directly to our working list, as soon as possible, with any comments, criticisms or suggestions that you would like us to bring forward. Each of the chairs have been asked to give feedback as soon as possible on this methodology. And it’s the intention of all of us to get on with this job very, very quickly, indeed. Any comments? Any questions?
Colin: Cheryl – Colin. The only comment is, good stuff; and I’m leaving now to go to another call.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes, in fact, all of us will be in just one moment. Heidi, if you don’t mind taking a very, very brief moment to raise the matter of the update on the At-large Beginner’s Guide to Generic TLD.
Those of us who have been around long enough will feel that this is back to the future. This is a matter that’s been on our backburners for a very long time. And so, if you’d like to do a brief review on that, I’m not going to call for any other business unless there is some matter of urgency.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, Cheryl, I’ll take 30 seconds. This document, which has been around, as Cheryl mentioned, for some time, we are working on that internally to get that to incorporate all of the comments that were made by the at-large community back in October. We’re updating it slightly to incorporate some updated information on the IDNs and GTLDs.
It’s going through internal review, in terms of legal, in terms of Scott looking at it from the plain language view, as well as other relevant staff members. And we’re hoping to at least have it out in a PDF English form by Brussels, with then following up on translations immediately following Brussels.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Excellent, any questions or comments from anyone, on that matter? If not, it falls to me to thank each and every one of you for your time and energy to have this ALAC meeting in two parts. It was exceptional, and I certainly want to thank you all – particularly those of you who’ve done this call at somewhat inhumane hours. Thank you, very much. Good evening, good morning, good day, good night, and many of you will now be in another work group call on vertical integration. Bye, for now.
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